Friday Varia and Quick Hits

It’s still cold here, but we’ve been promised temperatures above zero by the end of today. This winter, that’s a pretty nice day. So I’m settled into the rooftop office of the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World headquarters and getting ready to get something done for real today. 

Before I get on with my day, though, I suppose I should offer you something to make you weekend a bit more interesting. 

So here are some varia and quick hits:

• Susan Ashbrook Harvey and Margaret Mullett will lead this spring’s Byzantine Studies Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks titles “Knowing Bodies, Passionate Souls: Sense Perceptions in Byzantium.”

• Congratulations to the American Schools of Oriental Research in earning a $475,000 challenge gift. This is a big deal for a small organization.

• An Interview with Janet Burnett Grossman who has just published the  funerary sculpture from the Athenian Agora as volume 35 in that series. 

• Another week, another Early Christian Basilica. This week’s is in Lake Iznik in Turkey.

• The Apollo of Gaza: Hamas’s Ancient Bronze Statue.

• Some great photos of the 10th-11th century Armenian capital of Ani. 

• Some more research on the Justinianic plague.

• Some more evidence for the spread of Nestorians to China.

• New Sappho (and a preprint of D. Obbink’s publication (pdf)).

• A review of Connelly’s Parthenon Enigma in the New York Times. 

• Witnessing an animal sacrifice (even on the YouTubes) is intense.

• Some interesting thoughts on the “long form” phenomenon.

• More Professor Footnote (and definitely worth listening to!). 

• The Lever Initiative is an interesting model for small scale publishing.

• Albanian bunkers.

• Along similar lines, a map of abandoned places in North Dakota.

• Remembering the Fargo Arena, among the largest buildings in the U.S. in its day.

• Punk in Paris.

• This is a cool idea on Kickstarter. I’m not sure it’ll get funded, but it should.

• This is what happened when Louis Armstrong came to Grand Forks. 

• Why college costs so much.

• Say what you will of Harold Bloom’s idea of a Western Cannon, but this is a great list of great reads.

• Buying stereo equipment in Australia is not all that different from buying it on the northern plains.

• What I’m reading: D. Metcalf, Byzantine Cyprus 491-1191. Nicosia 2009.

• What I’m listening to: Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swinging  Lovers and In the Wee Small Hours.